Fan favorites Wanderlei “The Axe Murderer” Silva (33-1-1, 1NC) and Chris “The Crippler” Leben (25-7) will square off in a welterweight bout at UFC 132 according to UFC officials who announced the bout on Monday evening.
“Two fan favorites will go to war as Chris ‘The Crippler’ Leben has verbally agreed to face Wanderlei ‘The Axe Murderer’ Silva in Las Vegas July 2nd,” said UFC President Dana White.
The fight is something that Silva has been campaigning for via his Twitter page (@wandfc) for some time now. The promotion had wanted to put the Brazilian in the octagon against Brian Stann, the last man to face Leben, but it wasn’t a bout Silva wanted to take.
UFC 132 has yet to be officially announced but is expected to take place on July 2 at the Mandalay Bay Events Center in Las Vegas. Announced as the headliner for the event is a Bantamweight title bout between champ Dominick Cruz and top contender Urijah Faber.
Silva dropped to middleweight for his last fight after a 2-3 record in a third run with the UFC promotion. “The Axe Murderer” earned a unanimous decision over Michael Bisping at UFC 110, ending the fight with a flurry of strikes that likely earned the nod from the judges. Since that fight, Silva underwent knee surgery in July and wasn’t able to train for four months. Now he’s back and ready to return against another fan favorite in “The Crippler”.
Leben had a three fight win streak stopped on January 1 by the “All American” Brian Stann at UFC 125, losing a first round TKO defeat. The loss ended a stellar 2010 for Leben who earned wins over Jay Silva, Aaron Simpson, and Yoshihiro Akiyama. The victories over Simpson and Akiyama earned him “Fight Night” honors and were fought less than a month apart, Leben took the fight with Akiyama on short notice after Wanderlei Silva backed out due to injury.